St. Paul’s rector helped translation of new Missal

Sunday

Jan 9, 2011 at 6:00 AMJan 9, 2011 at 11:19 AM

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Vatican has completed work on a new, long-awaited English translation of the Roman Missal, and Roman Catholics in the United States will begin using the liturgical text at Masses starting in Advent.

The public will get its first peek of the new version when 160 excerpts of the Missal are formally released this week on Amazon.com.

Experts in various fields have spent years rigorously translating the original Missal text, and the introduction of the new liturgical document in November is considered to be one of the most important developments in the American church in the post-Vatican II era.

“This is big news,” said Monsignor James P. Moroney, the rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Worcester, who has worked extensively on the new translation over the past couple of years.

Monsignor Moroney serves as executive secretary of the Vox Clara Committee, which was created by the Holy See in 2002 to advise the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments on the translation of the Missal and other liturgical texts into English.

The Missal is a book containing prayers and responses for celebrating Mass throughout the year.

Monsignor Moroney, who noted the translated Missal is now “in publisher’s hands,” said the new version will be more accurate and provides a more “poetic tone” than the one now in use.

“It’s written in a language that people can understand and its words are rich and thick,” he said. “The new translation is more memorable and nourishing. I really think people will be moved by it.”

Monsignor Moroney said about 7,000 individuals ranging from bishops to poets and musicians have been involved in the revisions.

He said 17 drafts were reviewed by about a dozen “constituencies.”

Monsignor Moroney said the work didn’t always go smoothly, with translators engaging at times in heated discussions over some of the proposed changes.

Pope Benedict XVI approved of the new edition last April.

Officials in dioceses around the country are preparing for its use by putting together educational materials for Catholic clergy and laity alike.

Locally, Monsignor Moroney has met with diocesan priests about the new Missal, and another gathering is planned.

The changes include new responses by congregants in about a dozen sections of the Mass.

For example, when the celebrant says, “The Lord be with you,” Mass-goers will be asked to respond in the truer translation of the original, “And with your spirit.”

The current response is, “And also with you.”

More extensive changes were made to the words used by the celebrant.

“There might be some confusion when the new Missal is introduced, but I don’t think there will be any serious problems,” said Monsignor Moroney.

Church officials stressed that the order and structure of the Mass, the central worship service in Catholicism, will not be affected by the new translation.

Church officials said translators weren’t as accurate as they should have been after Second Vatican Council approved a new Missal in the mid-1960s and allowed Catholics to celebrate the Mass in their own languages.

They said the new translation remedies many problems.

New translations of the Roman Missal also are being made in other languages.

For example, two Spanish- language versions are now in use in Columbia and Argentina, and translations are being made in five other Hispanic dialects.